Stuffing or Dressing?

[Heather in Neverland]

What do you call it and why?

[Crissy]

I call it dressing because I cook it outside of the turkey. If I cooked it in the turkey, I'd call it stuffing.

[Tap]

I use them interchangeably because I cook it both inside and outside the bird.

 

But otherwise:

 

Stuffing is inside the bird

Dressing is outside.

[Dawn E]

I call it dressing because I cook it outside of the turkey. If I cooked it in the turkey, I'd call it stuffing.

 

I picked other because I think, as Crissy already stated, they are two different things. I make, and prefer, dressing. Yum. Stuffing...not so much. Even when cooked outside of the turkey, stuffing is still very different from dressing, imho.

[gardening momma]

Even when cooked outside of the turkey, stuffing is still very different from dressing, imho.

Just curious...how is it different? (I really don't know)

[Tutor]

I call it "stuffing" because that's what is says on the box. :D

 

I don't cook it in the bird, however, because I am afraid of "death by stuffing." Plus, I like a really, really moist (sorry Amy*) turkey, and I have found that the key to that is stuffing the bird with oranges, garlic, celery, and onions, covering the bird with cheesecloth soaked in a mixture of melted butter and apple juice and keeping the cheesecloth moist while the bird cooks.

 

My dh calls it "dressing" because that's what his momma calls it. (And it often involves oysters, and I just can't abide oysters.)

 

 

*I wish to apologize to Amy (in Orlando) for any and all references to birds and moistness in this post. ;)

[Rosy]

I call it stuffing because I always have...but I don't stuff the bird with it. I do, however, add some of the juices from the turkey to the stuffing before I roast it. I just don't like mushy stuffing, and I agree that the turkey turns out better when it's not stuffed. I used to stuff the bird and then take out the stuffing an hour before the it was done cooking and cooked them separately, but it's much easier just to keep it out. :)

[Alenee]

and I have found that the key to that is stuffing the bird with oranges, garlic, celery, and onions, covering the bird with cheesecloth soaked in a mixture of melted butter and apple juice and keeping the cheesecloth moist while the bird cooks.

 

 

 

YEP! I watched (and recorded) a Martha Stuart Living show about 11 years ago and used that as my step-by-step how-to-make-a-turkey tutorial for the first few years. I am very happy to say that every time I use the cheese cloth, people who ordinarily don't like turkey ask to come back to my house for T-day the next year. :D

 

eta: and I voted for "stuffing" though it is always made outside of the bird here at our house. Dh calls it dressing...what.evah. ;)

[Rosie_0801]

Huh? What American weirdness is this? Dressing is liquidy stuff you pour over things, salad in particular. Stuffing is solid rather than liquidy, and gets put inside other things, particularly poultry. Though you can have gravy, which is another pourable thing. Do you suppose gravy is a subset of dressing?

Hmm...

:)

Rosie

[mommytobees]

I call it GROSS!!!

 

Kris, who is anti-stuffing/dressing

[Jennifer3141]

We call it both in my family.

 

Jen

[jail warden]

nt

[MyThreeSons]

Stuffing is literally stuffed into the turkey and cooked, dressing is cooked in a separate dish. Thus, Stove Top Stuffing isn't really stuffing if it's done on the stove top.

 

My sil makes an awesome dressing that is pressed into a big baking dish and cooked. It is served by cutting into squares, much like cornbread. I like it okay, but I grew up with stuffing, which I make when I do a turkey.

[JudoMom]

I call it stuffing. Even though I know I should call it dressing because it's cooked outside the bird. Stuffing just sounds yummier than dressing.

[Melinda in VT]

I call it dressing because I cook it outside of the turkey. If I cooked it in the turkey, I'd call it stuffing.

 

See, this is logical and correct.

 

And yet . . . I've always called it stuffing. And neither I nor my mom have ever cooked it inside the turkey.:001_huh:

 

At this point, I've corrupted my kids too. When I do remember to call it dressing, they all start looking for the salad dressing.

[Parrothead]

I stuff the bird with either a yeast bread or rice mixture because that is what I had growing up and prefer. I have to make cornbread dressing as a side dish because that is the way my dh grew up and prefers it.

[abbeyej]

Same here. I *know* it's "dressing" since I don't put it in the bird, but "dressing" is for salad. I figured calling it "stuffing" is like calling all tissues Kleenex. ;) It's just the eponymous name for true stuffing and my awfully-stuffing-like-but-never-seen-the-inside-of-a-bird-carcass-dressing.

[Lisawa]

I agree... I voted other because it depends on how and "where" :) its cooked....

 

I call it dressing because I cook it outside of the turkey. If I cooked it in the turkey, I'd call it stuffing.

[Laurel]

Stuffing is the gross-textured bread-y stuff served on Thanksgiving.

 

Dressing goes on salad.

[Ellie]

I use them interchangeably...I think:D. I make one thing; some goes into the turkey, what's left goes in a casserole dish and baked in the oven. So I suppose I call the stuff in the turkey "stuffing" and the stuff in the dish "dressing." Maybe. I mainly cook it and eat it in either presentation.:D

[Karen in CO]

I don't stuff it in the turkey so it is dressing. Right? I grew up calling it stuffing, but I have been working to change that since I don't eat stuff that comes out of a turkey. :001_smile:

[Alaska Mom]

I call it stuffing because I literally stuff it, cram it and pack as much as I can possibly fit inside the bird, I even stuff it into the neck and "pin" it all closed so it doesn't pop out! With the left over that I can't fit into the bird I bake in a dish and I can tell you the non-stuffed "stuff" (which I don't eat) is in no way comparable to the yummy "stuffing" that comes out of the bird! Yummmmmmy! :D No deaths on Thanksgiving in our family yet, but there have been a few close calls as a result of eating way too much "stuffing"! ;)

[siloam]

What do you call it and why?

 

Stuffing. Dressing is the ranch I bathe my salad in.

 

Heather

 

[jubilee]

Stuffing. Dressing is the ranch I bathe my salad in.

 

Heather

 

 

:iagree:

[Tree House Academy]

Well, that is the case...you cook it OUTSIDE it is dressing and INSIDE, it is stuffing. Then, some wacko came along and made stovetop STUFFING that is cooked OUTSIDE the bird. Go figure! LOL

 

We call it whatever. I make my grandmother's recipe and it is dressing because it does not go inside the bird.

[MotherMayI]

I call it GROSS!!!

 

Kris, who is anti-stuffing/dressing

 

:iagree: Yuck!

[happyWImom]

I have always called it stuffing, even though our is technically dressing because it's cooked outside of the turkey. My dh & I would love to make some of the really interesting kinds that you hear of, but my mom is very traditional and won't let us. One year, dh made garlic mashed potatos and I never heard the end of it.:D

[Blue Hen]

FILLING

 

We've always called it filling ---- it fills the turkey cavity and it fills you up. It is FILLING! It is NOT stuffing, it is NOT dressing! It is FILLING.

 

Carole

[CookieMonster]

Stuffing. Dressing is the *blue cheese* I bathe my salad in.

 

This is the way it's always been for me, too.

 

Although, in college I lived with a lady who made "dressing" (my first introduction to the term) and it was nothing like stuffing. It was....it was....well I don't really know what it was - except delicious. I dislike stuffing, but I gobbled her dressing up.

 

I know she used cornbread stuffing mix to make it. But, that must have just been part of the whole because when it came out of the oven it was individual "patties" of dressing that looked nothing like stuffing. She was from North Carolina. I wish I had gotten her recipe before we parted.

[Sahamamama]

Because you stuff it in, duh.

 

No, seriously, because the turkey doesn't wear a necktie. That's why it isn't dressing.

[mommytobees]

:iagree: Yuck!

 

LOL!

 

Kris

[melissel]

Because you stuff it in, duh.

 

No, seriously, because the turkey doesn't wear a necktie. That's why it isn't dressing.

 

:lol: ITA. It's the stuff that's meant to be stuffed in the bird; thus, it's stuffing, whether it's in a bag in the grocery store or inside your turkey. Also, when it is cooked separate from the turkey, it then becomes a side dish. I've never called it dressing because it doesn't dress anything in our house. It just sits in a casserole dish, looking dry and lonely while everyone eats the stuffing that actually made it into the turkey.

 

So there! :D

[3lilreds in NC]

I call it stuffing, because that's what it's called. :D

 

It's just what it's called in my family, I guess. I've heard dressing, so I'd know what you meant, but it sounds weird to me to say that.

[jojomojo]

FILLING

 

We've always called it filling ---- it fills the turkey cavity and it fills you up. It is FILLING! It is NOT stuffing, it is NOT dressing! It is FILLING.

 

Carole

 

I was told today that the first serving is dressing, the second serving is filling, and any other servings you get are stuffing :D

[Just Me]

Huh? What American weirdness is this? Dressing is liquidy stuff you pour over things, salad in particular. Stuffing is solid rather than liquidy, and gets put inside other things, particularly poultry. Though you can have gravy, which is another pourable thing. Do you suppose gravy is a subset of dressing?

Hmm...

:)

Rosie

 

See, this is exactly what I was thinking...except for the whole American weirdness thing...since I am American (but no less weird! :001_smile:) Stuffing is what you eat at Thanksgiving, and dressing is what you put on your salad.

[PrairieAir]

I call it both. Yankee dad, southern mom. We put some in the turkey and bake some separately. I say that what goes in the bird is the stuffing and what gets baked separately is dressing, but really I stumble all over both words just like I do the pronunciation of Arkansas (when referring to the city, street, or river, not the state). It's very confusing.